Friday 28 October 2022 10:13 PM Brits brace for the biggest tax burden since World War Two as Jeremy Hunt plans ... trends now
The tax burden will hit yet another record high as Jeremy Hunt’s Budget next month is set to add another £25billion in hikes.
The planned Halloween Budget has been delayed to November to allow Rishi Sunak to get ‘under the bonnet’ of proposals to close a hole in the public finances said to be ‘north of £50billion’.
Mr Sunak yesterday said the ‘difficult’ package was needed to restore market confidence in the public finances and ‘limit as best as possible the increase in interest rates’.
A government source said Mr Hunt was targeting a 50:50 split between spending cuts and tax rises, meaning £25billion in hikes.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, pictured with his chancellor Jeremy Hunt, right, are working on an emergency budget which is set to send the tax burden rocketing to WWII levels
Mr Hunt, pictured, was appointed by the former Prime Minister Liz Truss, just days before she was forced to resign
Mr Hunt has already announced £32billion in tax rises as he sought to reassure the financial markets that the situation would be brought under control following the sacking of his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng
By contrast, George Osborne’s austerity package after the financial crash was 80 per cent spending cuts and 20 per cent tax rises.
Mr Hunt has already announced £32billion in tax rises as he sought to reassure the financial markets that the situation would be brought under control following the sacking of his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng.
Taken together, the UK now faces an extra £57billion in taxes, far outweighing the £45billion of tax cuts in Mr Kwarteng’s mini-Budget. The tax burden is already on course to hit 36.3 per cent of GDP by 2025 – up from 33.1 per cent last year, and the highest level since the 1940s. Last year, the total tax paid in the UK was just over £718billion – versus £315billion at the turn of the century.
Speaking on a visit to a hospital in Croydon yesterday, the Prime Minister said he would act to ‘protect the most vulnerable’ as he tightens the nation’s belt. But he said the eye-watering package was necessary to bring inflation under control and limit the looming rise in mortgage
